Modeling Solar Radiation

In our tutorial at the 2014 IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia conference, Tamer Khatib and I covered the application of machine learning techniques for energy applications, in particular for modeling solar radiation. In the first part we explored meta-heuristic search algorithms and envisioned their application for designing distributed, self-organizing control systems using evolutionary algorithms. We provide an open-source software tool, FREVO, to conveniently apply this approach of finding the proper configuration of a local agent.

In the second part, we targeted the problem of solar radiation modeling. After stepping through different classical modeling approaches, we presented the possibility of using artificial neural networks to learn the correlation of input parameters such as latitude, longitude, temperature, humidity, month, day, hour to predict global and diffuse solar radiation. Experiments show that this method can achieve a high accuracy compared to existing models.

Links:

• Download FREVO (open source, platform-independent)
• Video: 6 minute introduction to FREVO
• A. Sobe, I. Fehérvári, and W. Elmenreich. FREVO: A tool for evolving and evaluating self-organizing systems. In Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Evaluation for Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems, Lyon, France, September 2012.
• I. Fehervari and W. Elmenreich. Evolution as a tool to design self-organizing systems. In Self-Organizing Systems, volume LNCS 8221, pages 139–144. Springer Verlag, 2014.
• T. Khatib, A Mohamed, K Sopian. A review of solar energy modeling techniques. J. of Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews. 2012.16(5): 2864-2869.
• T. Khatib, A. Mohamed, K. Sopian, M. Mahmoud. Assessment of Artificial Neural Networks for Hourly Solar Radiation Prediction. J. of Photoenergy. 2012. 2012(ID 946890):1-7.
• IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia conference site

Is fusion power an option?

In his TED talk plasma physicist Michel Laberge talks about the state of the art of energy production by nuclear fusion and presents an idea for a new type of nuclear reactor that could produce cheap energy.


There are two types of energy production by nuclear power, fusion and fission. All current productive nuclear power plants are based on the fission technology, which comes with the risk of thermal runaway meltdown and lots of health risks from nuclear waste.
The other type, fusion, is worth a look though. Currently there are no fusion power plants that gain more energy than is used for running the process. However, since fusion processes only take place under high temperatures, a fusion process would stop under a breach of the containment field which makes it less dangerous than fission - at least if you are not in the immediate vicinity of the reactor when this happens. Fusion power will also produce more short-term radioactive material, which will be dangerous for "only" 300 years. In contrast, current nuclear fission power plants produce material that is active for thousands of years.
Still too dangerous? Then let's have the fusion reactor installed 150 million kilometers away in space. It's called the sun.

Energiewende - the Game

"Energiewende" is a computer game about the transition of our energy system from fossil fuels to renewable and sustainable energy sources. The game was developed by Manuel Herold, Matija Kucko, Andrea Monacchi, John N. A. Brown, and Wilfried Elmenreich as contribution to the CROSMOS GameJam. At this event teams had to develop a computer game to a topic just revealed at the contest in just two days - 2014 the topic was related to the services of Stadtwerke Klagenfurt. 

The game Energiewende let's you try out the strategic and tactical aspects of an electrical energy system that is mostly powered by renewable energy sources. Unlike a coal power plant, photovoltaic or wind power plants cannot save fuel in times of low load for using it later. Therefore, it is necessary to plan the distribution and placement of power plants well according to the expected power demands of their users - in the game they are modeled as houses with an energy consumption behavior of typical households. After placing power plants and transmission lines, the game features a real-time mode, where your system is simulated throughout three phases of a day (night/morning, daytime, evening). In case there is not enough energy in one phase, you must prevent a blackout (otherwise you loose the game) by balancing the grid. This is done by turning off devices in the houses. But be aware - user might not like this, especially if you turn off a device the user was about to use right now. A "complain-o-meter" is showing the aggregated dislikings of the users - once the complain-o-meter runs over, the game is lost.
Thus, one learns also about the typical consumption of devices and their potential for balancing the grid. The method shown in the game called demand response is currently a frequently discussed method for the future smart grid.

Got everything? Try out the game by clicking the image above. Have fun!

Call for Papers IEEE SmartGridComm 2014

IEEE SmartGridComm 2014 - IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications
Venice, Italy, November 3-6, 2014
http://sgc2014.ieee-smartgridcomm.org

============================================================================
CALL for SPECIAL SESSION PROPOSALS: Deadline March 2, 2014
CALL for PAPERS: Deadline April 20, 2014
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The IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm) 2014 will be held in Venice, Italy, at the Hilton Molino Stucky Hotel on  November 3-6, 2014. The program will include workshops, technical sessions, keynote talks from industrial leaders and renowned academics, panel discussions, and expositions. It will be centered on all aspects of smart grid communications covered by the symposia:

1. Communications and Networks to Enable the Smart Grid
2. Cyber Security and Privacy
3. Architectures, Control and Operation for Smart Grids, Microgrids and Distributed Resources
4. Demand Response and Dynamic Pricing
5. Data Management and Grid Analytics

Thematic Workshops will be held on November 3, 2014.

The program will be completed with a number of social events that will allow the participants to enjoy exclusive networking opportunities and the beauty of the marvelous historical city of Venice.

CALL for SPECIAL SESSION PROPOSALS

The conference will include special sessions on highly specialized topics reporting technical trends and breakthroughs within the scope of IEEE SmartGridComm 2014. Special sessions will be part of each symposium technical program. Special sessions are organized at the initiative of one or more individuals, who must adhere to the procedures published in the Call for Special Sessions.

Important Dates

Deadline for special session proposal: March 2, 2014
Notification of proposal acceptance: March 9, 2014
Submission deadline for special session papers: April 20, 2014
Final notification of session and papers acceptance: July 12, 2014
Camera ready paper submission: August 4, 2014
Author registration: August 4, 2014


CALL for PAPERS

Prospective authors are invited to submit original contributions (standard two column IEEE format, up to six pages) on all aspects of smart grid communications covered by the five conference symposia. Submission guidelines can be found in the Call for Papers.

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline: April 20, 2014
Notification of acceptance: July 12, 2014
Camera ready paper due: August 4, 2014
Author registration deadline: August 4, 2014

Wind power or photovoltaics?

Wind power is an interesting option for producing renewable energy. In contrast to Photovoltaics, wind generated energy costs less but it requires transmission infracstructure between wind parks and the consumers.Germany has more than 32 GW of installed wind power capacity and is now building transmission lines to transport the energy to the south.

How predictable is wind in comparison to PV output? The yield of both depend on some meterological factors which are hard to predict. However there is one big difference: you can easily calculate the maximum amount of solar intensity that your PV system has to cope with. With wind speed, it is hard to define a maximum possible wind speed, since on rare occasions wind speed can be significantly higher than the expected value.

Which could be dangerous: If the generator spins faster and faster, large forces produced could cause a wind turbine to self destruct:

Luckily, todays wind turbines have an overspeed control (a braking or featherin mechanism) and a cut-out mode. Still, I don't want them in my garden :-)

Open position for an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at Vienna University of Technology

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of Vienna University of Technology invites applications at the Institute of Energy Systems and Electrical Drives for a Tenure track position with qualification agreement for associate professor in the area of Electrical Energy Distribution Systems in form of a initially fixed-term (6 years) tenure track position starting from 01.04.2014. Research areas to be independently covered are automated distribution system operation including information and communication technologies (Smart Grids), integration of renewable and distributed energy resources into the energy system, electro-mobility, Microgrids as well as protection technology. The successful candidate is expected to initiate independent, creative research programs and to establish an own research group.
A strong emphasis is placed on the broad fields of planning, modeling, simulating and analyzing electrical energy distribution systems as well as the integration of decentralized renewable energy resources, hybrid energy storage systems and application of information and communication technologies for automated distribution system operation.
The following requirements for applications to this position exist. The successful candidate is expected to be an internationally recognized scientist with a PhD relevant to the field and perennial experience in one or several of the following research areas:
- Impact of distributed energy resources on distribution system operation and protection
- Integration of decentralized renewable energy resources and distributed storage into the energy system
- Integration of electro-mobility into the energy system
- Application of information and communication technology in energy distribution systems
- Reliability, resilience and island capability of energy distribution systems
- Real time simulation of energy distribution systems and Microgrids
and experience and commitment to excellence in teaching and supervision of undergraduate, graduate and PhD students.
The successful candidate is expected to participate in teaching according to the curricula of the faculty of electrical engineering and information technology and to establish an own research group.
Salaries and benefits of the tenure track position are according to collective labor agreement for employees at universities, salary group B1, based on 40 hours per week, and a monthly minimum salary of currently € 3.411,70 (14 times per year). After signature of the qualification agreement salaries and benefits are raised to salary group A2 and thus monthly € 4.034,70 (14 times per year).
Applications should include curriculum vitae, list of publications, copies of 5 most relevant publications, list of successful grant applications, and list of teaching experience. Applications should be directed to the Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of Vienna University of Technology, Erzherzog Johann Platz 1, 1040 Wien, Austria. Applications should include a CD-ROM with an electronic version of the complete application documents. Candidate evaluation will begin on 04.01.2014.
Candidates are not eligible for a refund of expenses for travelling and lodging related to the application process.

Impressions from BuildSys 2013

The 5th ACM Workshop On Embedded Systems For Energy-Efficient Buildings (BuildSys) 2013 were hold from the 13th to 14th of November in Rome, where the two researcher Dominik Egarter and Andrea Monacchi participated in. According to the general BuildSys chair the Workshops' aims can be summarized as follows:

The entrance of La Sapienza University, Rome, where SenSys and BuildSys were held

"BuildSys is a venue for discussing new directions in the monitoring, control, and management of energy consumption in buildings, and the generation of awareness and sustainability for an efficient energy market. BuildSys brings together researchers from a multitude of disciplines with a common goal to develop energy saving strategies that can have a major impact worldwide. BuildSys 2013 follows four successful predecessors held in Berkeley, Zurich, Seattle, and Toronto."

This year the workshop had 7 different season such as:

• Energy Efficiency in Homes,
• Data Analysis,
• Occupancy Detection, Monitoring & Use,
• Sensing for Energy,
• Energy and Water,
• HVAC, Modeling and Control and
• Thermal Comfort Management,

Andrea and Dominik at their posters 

where in total 22 papers were presented. In addition to the general paper presentation, the workshop offers a poster and demo session, where 10 posters and 8 demos were presented. The Smart Grid Group not only visited workshop, Dominik and Andrea were presenting two posters. Dominik showed his current result of Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) techniques with the title Appliance State Estimation Based on Particle Filtering. In this paper he showed how it is possible to apply Particle Filtering to the problem of aggregated power loads and how beneficial this approach can be. Moreover, Andreas poster has the title Insert Coin: turning the household into a prepaid billing system and propose an approach for raising energy awareness by combining appliance-level consumption information with prepaid billing so as to turn appliances in pay-as-you-go devices.

D. Egarter, Venkata Pathuri Bhuvana, W. Elmenreich. Appliance State Estimation Based on Particle Filtering, 5th ACM Workshop on Embedded Systems For Energy-Efficient Buildings, Rome, Italy, 2013.

A. Monacchi, W. Elmenreich. Insert Coin: turning the household into a prepaid billing system,5th ACM Workshop on Embedded Systems For Energy-Efficient Buildings (BuildSys'13), Rome, Italy, 2013